How does Different Religions Interpret / Portray Slavery?
Religions sometime can be really tricky to understand. Even though humans tried to make simpler versions of it, we end up making it more complex. Slavery was and still is a huge issue in our time. Slavery can be supported is many ways. Cultural and religions support is the most when we come to talk about slavery. Human's have faced severe issues regarding to slavery and our life us turned into hell because of slavery. We have come to know that even some religions also support slavery! What about when religions are supposed to be all holy and all peaceful? Do we really follow the peaceful part of our religion or the unpleasant part? Is religion making us view he world in two different lenses of it's own? How are we going to chose what's right or what's wrong? ''People who follows Hinduism believes in the divinity of the four Vedas, the world's most ancient scripture, and venerate the Agamas as equally revealed. These primordial hymns are God's word and the bedrock of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion.'' And '' People who follow Christianity believes that it is an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and oral teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament.''
The subject Religion is complex itself. let me break it down for you...
Religion: Christianity
Analysis:
This is one of the analytical quote that can presented in different period of time which will provide us with different view of this quote.
From the quote that I gathered from Levicticus 25:44-46, it clearly states the freedom and opportunity of bring an owner of a slave. The first sentence from this quote states that, ''However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you.'' The religion Christianity is giving an opportunity for the followers to take an ownership of having a slave. How is this even allowed in the religion? Isn't slavery supposed to be something atrocious. Even though slavery is atrocious, the quote from Leviticus gives you the permission to own a slave, and even an foreigner slave! So, if someone comes from a different country and they barely have any information about the place you live in, you have the full right to take ownership of them rather than help than helping them out.
It also states that the follower have the right to purchase the children of such resident foreigners. It's not not only giving you the right to own a slave but also to own the children's of a slave. And also it states that, ''You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.'' Why would you own children as your property? But the big question is, why would we even own a human being as our slaves? More than that, it's giving you the permission to treat the slaves as your property. Alright, so owning a slave in in-human although it can also be good only if you are owning the slaves to help them out. But in this quote, it's giving you the permission to own a slave and also to treat them as your property. If you have the right to treat them as your property, it simply means you have the full right to whatever with them. You can do hard-work with them, you can punish them, you can make fun of them, you can separate them from their family and many more! Also you can treat them as your property which literally means you can do ''anything'' with them.
Lastly this quote presented us with a huge impacting ending that can be looked in several ways. It states that, '' You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.'' This is telling us that you can own a slave, although there is some restrictions of who you own as a slave and it also presented us with very few options. It told us that we can't own any Israelis or our relatives as a slave. Because they are our relatives, we don't have the right to own them as a slave. So, why do we have the right to own any foreigner or our residential people as slaves? This gives you the freedom to go out and find any human being that you don't know and own them as a slave.
This quote also goes on saying you can't own any Israelite. The Israelite's, are the descendants of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob and membership is determined by the seed of your forefathers. This restriction of now having the permission to own Israelite is separating humans. It's putting the top at first with high lifestyle while the lower class '' the foreigners'' as slaves. One last thing this quote mention is that, ''You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.'' This is giving you the permission to pass the slaves onto your children as a permanent thing. Which means not only you but even your children can have slaves and treat them as their property and treat them however ways they want to treat them.
Religion: Christianity
Analysis:
We now have to know that there's another master who is on top of us. This quote is saying us that, the masters needs to treat their slaves as the way they want to be treated. This quote is giving the exact opposite meaning of the quote that I chose first for Christianity and slavery. The first quote is giving the full rights to the master to treat their slaves anyways they want to but this quote is telling the masters to treat the slaves the right way. This quote is also letting us know that there is another master who's on top of human. It's telling us that the master who is on top of us lives in heaven, a peaceful place where no crimes or disturbing things happen. So, the master who lives in the heaven, wants us to treat each other the right way that we should be treated. It's telling us not to threaten our slaves.
By the word threaten, it can mean many things! For ex- it can mean not to talk bad with your slaves, not to do harsh work with them, not to keep their families away from each other and more importantly it means not to beat them. It's also stating that the Master, who is up on the heaven have no favoritism at all. By that it means that the master up in the heaven favors no one. He only looks at what you did on our life on earth. From that he bases his decision either you will be sent to hell or sent to heaven. By all mean, it's trying to say us that if we treat our slaves badly, threaten them, beat them, we will be facing the same thing when we go to hell. If we do bad stuffs with our slaves, we won't end up in a good place when it's Master's time to decide where to put us. There's no favoritism with the faster, but only and only favors when you did good deeds.
Now this quote really matter to this world because how are we supposed to have slaves and not treat them bad? What does the word slave mean? Slave means someone who is owned by someone else ''Master'' and does anything the master tells him to do. A slave is a legal property of the master and is forced to obey them. But this quote is telling us not to threaten out slaves because there is another Master up in the heaven who is the master of the master who own's the slaves. So what right's do the masters who are on earth owning slaves? The master will simply follow the first quote which gives him the right to own a slave and treat him as any way he wanted to treat him because that's his property! But on other hand, he have a choice where he could decide whether he wants to be a slave master and treat them as anyway he wants to on earth or he wants to be a goof master and face good rewards from his own Master who is up in the heaven.
Religion: Hinduism
Analysis:
Slavery (ownership of a human by another human) is symbolically prohibited in Hinduism. In here, the word ''Devi'' is revering to Durga, who is the supreme Being in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism, while in the Smartha tradition, she is one of the five primary forms of God. In this quote, the human body is referring as being the receptacle of piety. It's trying to tell us that the human body is something that holds the quality of being religious or reverent. It's giving the human body such an honor level where the human body is being compared to a religious form. Then it's saying the human body is receptacle of worth. It's telling that the human body is an object or space that contains wealth. Wealth is something really valuable in our daily life, and the human body is even being compared to wealth. Also it's being said that the human body contains desires and final liberation. Which is telling us that the human body is so powerful that it even have the ability to have strong wanting. In simple words, it's telling us that human body is so rich and powerful.
Then this quote went on saying that the human body is so powerful and rich that it can't be owned. It's telling us that the human body has so much wealth on itself that it can't be purchased at no cost. Hinduism has fully made purchase of human body unacceptable by this one quote. It's giving the human body such an honor and a top place where it can't be bought no matter how rich you are. It's also trying to say that there's no slavery that is allowed in Hinduism. Since human body is so rich and powerful, you can't buy it which simple means there'e no slavery allowed in Hinduism. Slavery means buying and selling humans and also punishing them or treating them as they are our product. But this quote is telling us that since you can't purchase a human body, you have no right to treat them as the way you want to treat them. You have no right to own a slave because human's can't be bought with money. They are priceless.
This quote even relates to a bigger world in we think about it. Since buying a human body isn't permissible is Hinduism, why do Hindu's still bought slaves back then? They even had classes where they would define humans in different levels and those humans would get treated differently depending on their levels. This quote really matters to us because it's giving the human body such a powerful role where no one can buy them no matter what. And it also said that, ''and such a purchase is by reason of my commands invalid..'' So which mean, if anyone tried to buy a human, they are going against the law and might face some serious justification. We still don't know it's trying to say when it says, '' my commands invalid,'' but we can assume that it's trying o tell us that, if human are bought my other humans, they are going against the Hinduism law. The summary of the quote is that humans are priceless and can't be bought by someone else because
t's that powerful.
==
Religion: Hinduism
Analysis:
A ''Sudra,'' is the fourth and lowest of the traditional and social classes. They are also known as- The followers or the maintenance people and also the so-called menial workers or hard laborers. This quote is telling us that a Sudra, either bought or un-bought, must serve as a slave to his master. Sudra is the class white was created by it's self-existent also known as- ''Svayambhu.'' Svayambhu tends to be the slaves of the Brahmans. Brahmans are the highest class. It's the seers, the reflective ones, the priests. In our society, they would correspond to the philosophers, religious leaders, and teachers. Since Sudra is the lowest of Hindu class anyone could possible get, they are supposed to be the slaves for the highest class which are the Brahmans.
This quote is also telling us that a Brahman don't need to buy a Sudra. Sudra is automatically a slave of the Brahmans from their birth. Did I also mention that this Sudra's and Brahmans are people but defined by their classes? Yes, they are humans just like us. But Hindu religion tends to define them as their classes from their birth. For ex- of you are born in a poor family they think you did something bad in your past life that that's why you got this bad karma. But if you are born in a rich or wealthy family, you tend to do something good in our past life and now you got your rewards. Although this point is highly debatable, but the religion Hinduism sincerely respects it and accepted this mindsets.
This quote has put the level of people who are ''Sudra's,'' in a very low level where they can be bought at no cost and they don't have any power at all! It's also mentioning that a Brahman have the full right to capture the wealth or goods that a Sudra have. Why can a Brahman have the right to seize a Sudra's goods? Isn;t Sudra's supposed to be A Brahman's slave? That's why Brahman's have the full right to conquer over a Sudra's goods and have the full right to treat them as they wish. It's also telling that a slave can't have no property at all since slave is the property itself to it's master. So a Sdra's goods or property is also it's master's property and the master cab do anything he wishes to do with the property. In simple words, the master, so known as -''Brahman's,'' in the owner of anything the slave owns. The Sudra category is defined as being the slaves and the cursed one's. So, in their whole lifetime, they have to serve as a slave to it's master and isn't capable of leading a happy life. Although this quote didn't tell us how a Sudra can be treated by it's master but we can assume that since it's telling us the master can own any property the slave have, the slave is the property of master itself. That means the master can treat the slave anyway he desires to. The Sudra is forced to serve as a slave throughout his life.
This get's even deeper in meaning if we think about it in real world. What if it's not someone's fault of being born in a poor family where the income is too low and they have to depend on others. Does that make them a slave? Does that mean they can't accomplish on their life and lead a happy life? Yes, this quote is telling us that. It's telling us no matter what, a Sudra who is a laborer must serve as a slave throughout his life. It really matters to us because we can't control where we are born. This quote is taking our rights to be successful or being accomplished in our life. So, a Sudra have no life, no happiness, but to be a slave and serve to his master throughout his life.
Final Statement:
So I've talked about Christianity and Hinduism and how they differ from each other. But did you notice that they even confuse themselves? What I am trying to say that some religion isn't fully purified. For ex- as you read by analysis and quotes, you've seen that these two religion gully excluded slavery and said that's it's bad for human beings. But on other chapter, they also talk about how we are allowed to have slaves and it's fully permitted. This is really confusing if we wan't to define this in our real world. So what are we supposed to follow if inside one religion there' two option e can chose from. Isn't Religions supposed to give us faith and supposed to shop us the right way of life? Then why does these two religion have two different thought and views on one single chapter of Slavery? Now think about how many chapter a religion holds and what if they also have different views for each subject? What if someone evil wants to slave? They surely will follow the side of religion which permits slave. And what if someone who is knowledgeable and don't want to have slave? They surely will follow the side of religion which prohibits slaves. But if you think about it, it's really confusing since you have two different options to chose from! We should have one singular point of view where the religion would explain why or why not to own slave. Slavery is a huge issues we had earlier in our history and still do until this days. Slave masters or owner can show us that religions even permit slaves. What are we going to say then to free the slaves? Nothing, we can't say nothing. People sometimes worship religion at a really high level when they forget the rest of the world. What if he worships the bad side of the religion? What if everyone worships the bad side of the religion? Think about how bad it's going to be. Religion is complicated itself, and the subjects inside of it makes it more complex. This is a real world issue because now we can't justify how religion works or describe the real meaning of it. People will get confused on what to follow and we'll have to face several major issues regarding to religions.
How does Different Religions Interpret / Portray Slavery?
Religions sometime can be really tricky to understand. Even though humans tried to make simpler versions of it, we end up making it more complex. Slavery was and still is a huge issue in our time. Slavery can be supported is many ways. Cultural and religions support is the most when we come to talk about slavery. Human's have faced severe issues regarding to slavery and our life us turned into hell because of slavery. We have come to know that even some religions also support slavery! What about when religions are supposed to be all holy and all peaceful? Do we really follow the peaceful part of our religion or the unpleasant part? Is religion making us view he world in two different lenses of it's own? How are we going to chose what's right or what's wrong? ''People who follows Hinduism believes in the divinity of the four Vedas, the world's most ancient scripture, and venerate the Agamas as equally revealed. These primordial hymns are God's word and the bedrock of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion.'' And '' People who follow Christianity believes that it is an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and oral teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament.''
The subject Religion is complex itself. let me break it down for you...
Religion: Christianity
Analysis:
This is one of the analytical quote that can presented in different period of time which will provide us with different view of this quote.
From the quote that I gathered from Levicticus 25:44-46, it clearly states the freedom and opportunity of bring an owner of a slave. The first sentence from this quote states that, ''However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you.'' The religion Christianity is giving an opportunity for the followers to take an ownership of having a slave. How is this even allowed in the religion? Isn't slavery supposed to be something atrocious. Even though slavery is atrocious, the quote from Leviticus gives you the permission to own a slave, and even an foreigner slave! So, if someone comes from a different country and they barely have any information about the place you live in, you have the full right to take ownership of them rather than help than helping them out.
It also states that the follower have the right to purchase the children of such resident foreigners. It's not not only giving you the right to own a slave but also to own the children's of a slave. And also it states that, ''You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.'' Why would you own children as your property? But the big question is, why would we even own a human being as our slaves? More than that, it's giving you the permission to treat the slaves as your property. Alright, so owning a slave in in-human although it can also be good only if you are owning the slaves to help them out. But in this quote, it's giving you the permission to own a slave and also to treat them as your property. If you have the right to treat them as your property, it simply means you have the full right to whatever with them. You can do hard-work with them, you can punish them, you can make fun of them, you can separate them from their family and many more! Also you can treat them as your property which literally means you can do ''anything'' with them.
Lastly this quote presented us with a huge impacting ending that can be looked in several ways. It states that, '' You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.'' This is telling us that you can own a slave, although there is some restrictions of who you own as a slave and it also presented us with very few options. It told us that we can't own any Israelis or our relatives as a slave. Because they are our relatives, we don't have the right to own them as a slave. So, why do we have the right to own any foreigner or our residential people as slaves? This gives you the freedom to go out and find any human being that you don't know and own them as a slave.
This quote also goes on saying you can't own any Israelite. The Israelite's, are the descendants of the Hebrew patriarch Jacob and membership is determined by the seed of your forefathers. This restriction of now having the permission to own Israelite is separating humans. It's putting the top at first with high lifestyle while the lower class '' the foreigners'' as slaves. One last thing this quote mention is that, ''You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.'' This is giving you the permission to pass the slaves onto your children as a permanent thing. Which means not only you but even your children can have slaves and treat them as their property and treat them however ways they want to treat them.
Religion: Christianity
Analysis:
We now have to know that there's another master who is on top of us. This quote is saying us that, the masters needs to treat their slaves as the way they want to be treated. This quote is giving the exact opposite meaning of the quote that I chose first for Christianity and slavery. The first quote is giving the full rights to the master to treat their slaves anyways they want to but this quote is telling the masters to treat the slaves the right way. This quote is also letting us know that there is another master who's on top of human. It's telling us that the master who is on top of us lives in heaven, a peaceful place where no crimes or disturbing things happen. So, the master who lives in the heaven, wants us to treat each other the right way that we should be treated. It's telling us not to threaten our slaves.
By the word threaten, it can mean many things! For ex- it can mean not to talk bad with your slaves, not to do harsh work with them, not to keep their families away from each other and more importantly it means not to beat them. It's also stating that the Master, who is up on the heaven have no favoritism at all. By that it means that the master up in the heaven favors no one. He only looks at what you did on our life on earth. From that he bases his decision either you will be sent to hell or sent to heaven. By all mean, it's trying to say us that if we treat our slaves badly, threaten them, beat them, we will be facing the same thing when we go to hell. If we do bad stuffs with our slaves, we won't end up in a good place when it's Master's time to decide where to put us. There's no favoritism with the faster, but only and only favors when you did good deeds.
Now this quote really matter to this world because how are we supposed to have slaves and not treat them bad? What does the word slave mean? Slave means someone who is owned by someone else ''Master'' and does anything the master tells him to do. A slave is a legal property of the master and is forced to obey them. But this quote is telling us not to threaten out slaves because there is another Master up in the heaven who is the master of the master who own's the slaves. So what right's do the masters who are on earth owning slaves? The master will simply follow the first quote which gives him the right to own a slave and treat him as any way he wanted to treat him because that's his property! But on other hand, he have a choice where he could decide whether he wants to be a slave master and treat them as anyway he wants to on earth or he wants to be a goof master and face good rewards from his own Master who is up in the heaven.
Religion: Hinduism
Analysis:
Slavery (ownership of a human by another human) is symbolically prohibited in Hinduism. In here, the word ''Devi'' is revering to Durga, who is the supreme Being in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism, while in the Smartha tradition, she is one of the five primary forms of God. In this quote, the human body is referring as being the receptacle of piety. It's trying to tell us that the human body is something that holds the quality of being religious or reverent. It's giving the human body such an honor level where the human body is being compared to a religious form. Then it's saying the human body is receptacle of worth. It's telling that the human body is an object or space that contains wealth. Wealth is something really valuable in our daily life, and the human body is even being compared to wealth. Also it's being said that the human body contains desires and final liberation. Which is telling us that the human body is so powerful that it even have the ability to have strong wanting. In simple words, it's telling us that human body is so rich and powerful.
Then this quote went on saying that the human body is so powerful and rich that it can't be owned. It's telling us that the human body has so much wealth on itself that it can't be purchased at no cost. Hinduism has fully made purchase of human body unacceptable by this one quote. It's giving the human body such an honor and a top place where it can't be bought no matter how rich you are. It's also trying to say that there's no slavery that is allowed in Hinduism. Since human body is so rich and powerful, you can't buy it which simple means there'e no slavery allowed in Hinduism. Slavery means buying and selling humans and also punishing them or treating them as they are our product. But this quote is telling us that since you can't purchase a human body, you have no right to treat them as the way you want to treat them. You have no right to own a slave because human's can't be bought with money. They are priceless.
This quote even relates to a bigger world in we think about it. Since buying a human body isn't permissible is Hinduism, why do Hindu's still bought slaves back then? They even had classes where they would define humans in different levels and those humans would get treated differently depending on their levels. This quote really matters to us because it's giving the human body such a powerful role where no one can buy them no matter what. And it also said that, ''and such a purchase is by reason of my commands invalid..'' So which mean, if anyone tried to buy a human, they are going against the law and might face some serious justification. We still don't know it's trying to say when it says, '' my commands invalid,'' but we can assume that it's trying o tell us that, if human are bought my other humans, they are going against the Hinduism law. The summary of the quote is that humans are priceless and can't be bought by someone else because
t's that powerful.
==
Religion: Hinduism
Analysis:
A ''Sudra,'' is the fourth and lowest of the traditional and social classes. They are also known as- The followers or the maintenance people and also the so-called menial workers or hard laborers. This quote is telling us that a Sudra, either bought or un-bought, must serve as a slave to his master. Sudra is the class white was created by it's self-existent also known as- ''Svayambhu.'' Svayambhu tends to be the slaves of the Brahmans. Brahmans are the highest class. It's the seers, the reflective ones, the priests. In our society, they would correspond to the philosophers, religious leaders, and teachers. Since Sudra is the lowest of Hindu class anyone could possible get, they are supposed to be the slaves for the highest class which are the Brahmans.
This quote is also telling us that a Brahman don't need to buy a Sudra. Sudra is automatically a slave of the Brahmans from their birth. Did I also mention that this Sudra's and Brahmans are people but defined by their classes? Yes, they are humans just like us. But Hindu religion tends to define them as their classes from their birth. For ex- of you are born in a poor family they think you did something bad in your past life that that's why you got this bad karma. But if you are born in a rich or wealthy family, you tend to do something good in our past life and now you got your rewards. Although this point is highly debatable, but the religion Hinduism sincerely respects it and accepted this mindsets.
This get's even deeper in meaning if we think about it in real world. What if it's not someone's fault of being born in a poor family where the income is too low and they have to depend on others. Does that make them a slave? Does that mean they can't accomplish on their life and lead a happy life? Yes, this quote is telling us that. It's telling us no matter what, a Sudra who is a laborer must serve as a slave throughout his life. It really matters to us because we can't control where we are born. This quote is taking our rights to be successful or being accomplished in our life. So, a Sudra have no life, no happiness, but to be a slave and serve to his master throughout his life.
Final Statement:
So I've talked about Christianity and Hinduism and how they differ from each other. But did you notice that they even confuse themselves? What I am trying to say that some religion isn't fully purified. For ex- as you read by analysis and quotes, you've seen that these two religion gully excluded slavery and said that's it's bad for human beings. But on other chapter, they also talk about how we are allowed to have slaves and it's fully permitted. This is really confusing if we wan't to define this in our real world. So what are we supposed to follow if inside one religion there' two option e can chose from. Isn't Religions supposed to give us faith and supposed to shop us the right way of life? Then why does these two religion have two different thought and views on one single chapter of Slavery? Now think about how many chapter a religion holds and what if they also have different views for each subject? What if someone evil wants to slave? They surely will follow the side of religion which permits slave. And what if someone who is knowledgeable and don't want to have slave? They surely will follow the side of religion which prohibits slaves. But if you think about it, it's really confusing since you have two different options to chose from! We should have one singular point of view where the religion would explain why or why not to own slave. Slavery is a huge issues we had earlier in our history and still do until this days. Slave masters or owner can show us that religions even permit slaves. What are we going to say then to free the slaves? Nothing, we can't say nothing. People sometimes worship religion at a really high level when they forget the rest of the world. What if he worships the bad side of the religion? What if everyone worships the bad side of the religion? Think about how bad it's going to be. Religion is complicated itself, and the subjects inside of it makes it more complex. This is a real world issue because now we can't justify how religion works or describe the real meaning of it. People will get confused on what to follow and we'll have to face several major issues regarding to religions.Sources
1. http://nirmukta.net/Thread-The-Manu-Smriti-on-Caste-Violence2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS4fUL_9KGU
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_and_religion
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_slavery
5. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/february-web-only/inconceivable-start-of-african-american-christianity.html
6. http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_slav.htm
7. http://www.evilbible.com/Slavery.htm